Another lens test with a feeding blackbird

The sun shone brightly intermittently this morning.  I worked intermittently, perhaps in sympathy, until I went to make my second cup of coffee of the morning.  It was then that I went to fill up the bird feeders in the garden and decided to use the lens I'd borrowed from Bruce to do some tests on the feeding birds.

I opened the window of the cabin and sat on a chair with the weak sun just about warming me up.  A jay had appeared earlier in the morning but I wasn't set up then, so I had to sit and wait.  A few tits appeared and two robins squabbled for a chance to stand on the edge of the tray of seeds.

Then this blackbird approached cautiously eyeing up the food from the safety of the rhus tree before flying in.  It fed rapidly on a lot of seeds which it swallowed as quickly as possible and then flew off with a classic blackbird warning call.  The camera wasn't set to a fast enough shutter speed to catch the bird's flight properly, but I like the shapes it has produced here.

The light wasn't very bright but this 70-300mm lens at its tightest position hasn't enthused me.  When conditions are best it does produce good colour and sharp shots, but at other times it is difficult to zoom and isn't as sharp as my L series 70-200mm.  I will keep testing it, but I don't think I will buy it.  I think I would prefer to get an extender to achieve the same reach, but with an image quality that I prefer from my existing lens.